Thursday, June 26, 2008

Brave New World

Ehhhh. Just read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It was kind of boring. And kind of pretentious if I say so myself. I was expecting a lovely engaging dystopian read, but I found the concepts trite, overused, and frankly condescending. I think for the day and age in which it was written it would much more appalling and much more shocking. Today it seems like it has all been done before. Movies like the Matrix have spoiled us modern day readers.

I do find it interesting what Huxley was insinuating about consumerism. Are we being programed to consume? To not be able to live without using the products we are told we need? Maybe he has a something here, even in 2008.

Another point I found most interesting is that people were being conditioned to enjoy their social position in life. If you can't change it, you might as well be happy with it, right? Well...yeah. Luckily, America (and many other nations for that matter) has a relatively high level of social mobility (perceived or not). Let say for minute though, that birth did determine every aspect of our lives---then being happy with our life-situations would probably the best (if only) method to enjoy a productive and satisfying life. Any moron can see that. It just sounds so horrible to say, and almost to think. We Americans are in love with self-determination and nothing is ever good enough for us. Is that good or bad? Hard to tell.

It's not Huxley's best work, just his easiest to understand and pass around high school lit classes. When you read Huxley, though, you really do have to keep in mind that he was a freak for psycho-active drugs and that affected a lot of his work. And you have to admit, he went a lot deeper than "1984" or "Farenheit: 451."

ur right the matrix has ruined readers. hence the reason i refuse to see it. the brave new world is a wonderfull book for which must be looked at by its own standereds and not the ones that u set for it. if u want something to compare it to read whethering heights, jane eyre and pride and prejudice in a row then u can put the brave new world down if u doint think it was an open relief from those books.